Details on the origins of all the peoples that make up
the population of highland Ethiopia were still matters for research and
debate in the early 1990s. Anthropologists believe that East Africa's
Great Rift Valley is the site of humankind's origins. (The valley
traverses Ethiopia from southwest to northeast.) In 1974 archaeologists
excavating sites in the Awash River valley discovered 3.5-million-year-
old fossil skeletons, which they named Australopithecus afarensis. These
earliest known hominids stood upright, lived in groups, and had adapted
to living in open areas rather than in forests.

Coming forward to the late Stone Age, recent research
in historical linguistics--and increasingly in archaeology as well--has
begun to clarify the broad outlines of the prehistoric populations of
present-day Ethiopia. These populations spoke languages that belong to
the Afro-Asiatic super-language family, a group of related languages
that includes Omotic, Cushitic, and Semitic, all of which are found in
Ethiopia today. Linguists postulate that the original home of the
Afro-Asiatic cluster of languages was somewhere in northeastern Africa,
possibly in the area between the Nile River and the Red Sea in modern
Sudan. From here the major languages of the family gradually dispersed
at different times and in different directions--these languages being
ancestral to those spoken today in northern and northeastern Africa and
far southwestern Asia.

The first language to separate seems to have been
Omotic, at a date sometime after 13,000 B.C. Omotic speakers moved
southward into the central and southwestern highlands of Ethiopia,
followed at some subsequent time by Cushitic speakers, who settled in
territories in the northern Horn of Africa, including the northern
highlands of Ethiopia. The last language to separate was Semitic, which
split from Berber and ancient Egyptian, two other Afro-Asiatic
languages, and migrated eastward into far southwestern Asia.

By about 7000 B.C. at the latest, linguistic evidence
indicates that both Cushitic speakers and Omotic speakers were present
in Ethiopia. Linguistic diversification within each group thereafter
gave rise to a large number of new languages. In the case of Cushitic,
these include Agew in the central and northern highlands and, in regions
to the east and southeast, Saho, Afar, Somali, Sidamo, and Oromo, all
spoken by peoples who would play major roles in the subsequent history
of the region. Omotic also spawned a large number of languages, Welamo
(often called Wolayta) and Gemu-Gofa being among the most widely spoken
of them, but Omotic speakers would remain outside the main zone of
ethnic interaction in Ethiopia until the late nineteenth century.

Both Cushitic- and Omotic-speaking peoples collected
wild grasses and other plants for thousands of years before they
eventually domesticated those they most preferred. According to
linguistic and limited archaeological analyses, plough agriculture based
on grain cultivation was established in the drier, grassier parts of the
northern highlands by at least several millennia before the Christian
era. Indigenous grasses such as teff and eleusine
were the initial domesticates; considerably later, barley and wheat were
introduced from Southwest Asia. The corresponding domesticate in the
better watered and heavily forested southern highlands was ensete, a
root crop known locally as false banana. All of these early peoples also
kept domesticated animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.
Thus, from the late prehistoric period, agricultural patterns of
livelihood were established that were to be characteristic of the region
through modern times. It was the descendants of these peoples and
cultures of the Ethiopian region who at various times and places
interacted with successive waves of migrants from across the Red Sea.
This interaction began well before the modern era and has continued
through contemporary times.

During the first millennium B.C. and possibly even
earlier, various Semitic-speaking groups from Southwest Arabia began to
cross the Red Sea and settle along the coast and in the nearby
highlands. These migrants brought with them their Semitic speech
(Sabaean and perhaps others) and script (Old Epigraphic South Arabic)
and monumental stone architecture. A fusion of the newcomers with the
indigenous inhabitants produced a culture known as pre-Aksumite. The
factors that motivated this settlement in the area are not known, but to
judge from subsequent history, commercial activity must have figured
strongly. The port city of Adulis, near modern-day Mitsiwa, was a major
regional entrepôt and probably the main gateway to the interior for new
arrivals from Southwest Arabia. Archaeological evidence indicates that
by the beginning of the Christian era this pre-Aksumite culture had
developed western and eastern regional variants. The former, which
included the region of Aksum, was probably the polity or series of
polities that became the Aksumite state.

During the 1st millennium BC, Semitic people from Saba' (Hebrew Sheba)
crossed the Red Sea and conquered the Hamite on the coast of what was
eventually to become the Ethiopian Empire. By the 2nd century AD the
victors had established the kingdom of Axum.
The kingdom was ruled by the Solomonid dynasty, so called because the
kings claimed direct descent from the biblical king Solomon and the
queen of Sheba. Axum converted to
Christianity, belonging to the same tradition as the Coptic Christians
of Egypt. It flourished for a while, but beginning in about the 7th
century the kingdom declined as the Solomonids lost control of section
after section of their realm. Early in the 10th century the Solomonid
dynasty was overthrown and replaced by the Zagwe dynasty, the ruling
family of a region on the central plateau known as Lasta.
Regaining control of the country around or after 1260, the Solomonids
gradually succeeded in reasserting their authority over much of
Ethiopia, although Muslims retained control of the coastal area and the
southeast. During the reign (1434-1468) of Zara Yakub, the
administration of the Ethiopian church, which
had become divided by factionalism, was reformed, and religious
doctrines were codified. At about this time a political system emerged
that lasted until the middle of the 20th century. It was characterized
by absolutist monarchs who exacted military service in return for grants
of land.

Warriors from the Islamic state of Adal with their Leader
Gragn Ahmed
invaded Ethiopia beginning about 1527.

Ethiopians defeated the Muslims in 1543. In 1557 Jesuit missionaries
arrived, but their ongoing attempts to convert the Ethiopian emperors
from Coptic Christianity to Roman Catholicism were largely unsuccessful,
and provoked social and political unrest in those who felt the Coptic
Church was the backbone of an independent Ethiopian culture. In 1632,
following a period of turbulence and dynastic confusion, Fasiladas
became emperor. He was succeeded by his son, Johannes I, in 1637. During
the 17th century the country experienced an artistic renaissance for
Ethiopian culture, as it was exposed to styles of expression from
Western Europe and the Muslim world. This was especially true during the
reign of Johannes' son, Iyasus I, also known as Iyasus the Great. After
succeeding to the crown in 1682, Iyasus became known as a lover of the
arts, as well as a modernizer and brilliant military tactician. His
reign saw the construction of some of Ethiopia's most beautiful
religious architecture as well as the re-establishment of governmental
authority over several provinces in the south that had succumbed to
Muslim and tribal encroachment. After the death of Iyasus in 1706,
Ethiopia entered another prolonged period of dynastic confusion and
decline, during which the country fractured into separate regions.

The only unifying force that remained throughout this period was the
Ethiopian church. Gaining the support of high church officials,
a successful brigand from the northwestern frontier, Kassa Haylu, had
himself crowned Emperor Theodore II in 1855, after having defeated a
number of petty feudal rulers who controlled various sections of the
country. He began to modernize and centralize the
legal and administrative systems, despite the opposition of local
governors. Tensions developed with Great Britain.
Later, when Theodore imprisoned some British officials for conspiring
against him, including the British consul,
the British dispatched an expeditionary under Robert (later Lord) Napier force
to Ethiopia, and the emperor committed suicide in
Magdala (now Amba Mariam) 1868
rather than be taken prisoner. After a four-year struggle for the throne
by various claimants, Dejach Kassai, governor of the province of Tigray,
succeeded, in being crowned Johannes IV, emperor of Ethiopia. Johannes
IVattempts to further centralize the government led to
revolts by local leaders; in addition, his regime was threatened during
1875-76 by Egyptian incursions and, after 1881, by raids by followers of
the Mahdi in Sudan.

In the 1870s the main external enemy of the empire, which was little
more than a collection of semi-independent states, was Egypt. In 1875
the Egyptian khedive Ismail Pasha extended Egyptian protection to the
Muslim ruler of Harer and launched an attack on Ethiopia from both the
north and the east. Johannes successfully halted the Egyptian
invasion, but the continued occupation by Egypt of the Red Sea and
Somali ports severely curtailed the supply of arms and other goods to
Ethiopia. The opening (1869) of the Suez Canal
increased the strategic importance of Ethiopia, and several European
powers (particularly Italy, France, and Great Britain) sought influence
in the area.
Johannes was killed defending his western frontier against the Sudanese
in 1889. He was succeeded by Menelik II, who established a new capital
at Addis Ababa and succeeded in uniting the provinces of Tigray and
Amhara with Shewa.

Menelik II

Tewodros II

Empress Taitu

Yohannis IV

Menelik II (1844-1913) was the one monarch
who accomplished the dreams Tewodros had for his country. Menelik took
over as king of Ethiopia in 1889 after the death of Yohannes in the
Battle of Metema. Most European powers in the late 19th
century were determined to secure territories in Africa. Italy was
focusing its desires on particularly Ethiopia. The Treaty of Uccialli
was negotiated between Ethiopia and Italy in 1890. Two copies, one in
Amharic and one in Italian, were prepared. On the Italian version of the
treaty, Francesco Crispi, prime minister of Italy, announced to all
European nations that Ethiopia had become a territory belonging to
Italy. On the Amharic version, it gave Menelik II the right to ask Italy
for help in times of need, but it did not say anything about Ethiopia
becoming a territory of Italy. When Menelik II discovered the
misunderstanding, he immediately wrote to Britain's Queen Victoria, to
the ruler of Germany, and to the president of France insisting that
Ethiopia was still an independent nation. In 1893, Menelik II denounced
the treaty and by 1895 Ethiopia and Italy were at war. On March 1896
Menelik's troops crushed the Italian army at Adwa, Ethiopia. Later,
Italy did recognize Ethiopia as an independent nation.

After Menelik defeated the Italians at
the Battle of Adwa, he expanded Ethiopia by conquest. Turmoil led to
Menelik’s death, which brought his daughter, Empress Zauditu, to power
in 1917. Tafari Makonnen was regent and heir apparent. Upon Empress
Zauditu’s death in 1930, Tafari Makonnen was crowned Haile Selassie I as
he became the 225th successor of the Solomonic dynasty. The name Haile
Selassie means 'the Power of the Trinity' in Amharic, and his official
titles also included 'King of Kings' and the ‘Lion of Judah.' In 1931,
Haile Sellasie decreed the nation's first written constitution. Through
his efforts, Ethiopia became a member of the international organization
called the League of Nations (now United Nations) in 1932.

B. The
Italo-Ethiopian Wars

With
the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Red Sea coast had become
increasingly attractive to the European powers as an object for
colonization. Italy focused its attention on Ethiopia, seizing Aseb in
1872 and Massawa in 1885. In 1889 Menelik and the Italians signed the
Treaty of Wichale (Ucciali). The treaty was one of friendship and
cooperation, but the Amharic and Italian versions of it differed, and
the Italians claimed that it made all of Ethiopia their protectorate. As
a result, war broke out between Italy and Ethiopia in 1895, and Italian
forces were decisively defeated at Adwa (Aduwa) the following year.
Italy was forced to recognize the independence of Ethiopia, and
Menelik’s present-day boundaries. The successor of Menelik, Emperor Lij
Iyasu (reigned 1913-1916), was deposed in favor of his aunt, crowned
Empress Zauditu. Tafari Makonnen, her cousin, was selected as heir
apparent; he succeeded to the throne as Haile Selassie I. In 1931 he
granted Ethiopia its first constitution.

With the rise of the dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian designs
toward Ethiopia were revived, and in October 1935 Italy invaded the
country (see Italy: The Ethiopian Campaign).
An attempt by the League of Nations to halt the conquest failed. Addis
Ababa fell to the invaders, and in May 1936 Mussolini proclaimed Italy's
King Victor Emmanuel III emperor of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie was forced
to flee the country and take refuge in England, but he was restored
to the throne by British and Ethiopian forces in 1941.

C.
The Later Reign of Haile Selassie

Empress Menen

Emperor Haile Selassie

Emperor Haile Selassie

Imperial Guard

According to the terms of the Allied peace treaty withItaly,signed
in1947, agreement was to be reached within a year on the disposition
of the former Italian colonies of Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and
Libya. In the absence of such an agreement, however, the decision was
left to the United Nations (UN). The UN General Assembly voted for the
federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia, to be completed by September 1952.

In 1955 Haile Selassie issued a revised constitution, which was a
half-hearted attempt to move the country into the 20th century. For
example, it gave certain limited powers to the parliament. Progressive
elements in the country, however, felt it was insufficient. After an
unsuccessful attempt by members of the imperial guard to overthrow Haile
Selassie in December 1960, the emperor increased government efforts
toward economic development and social reform.

As the 1960s progressed, Haile Selassie became increasingly preoccupied
with foreign affairs. In 1963 he played a leading role in the formation
of the Organization of African Unity, which located its secretariat at
Addis Ababa. During the following year a long-standing border dispute
between Ethiopia and the Somali Republic erupted into armed warfare. A
truce, agreed to in March, established a demilitarized zone along the
border, but hostilities recurred sporadically. Trouble also arose in
1965 with Sudan, which Ethiopia accused of abetting an Eritrean
independence movement. The conflict intensified when 7,000 Eritreans
fled to Sudan in 1967 because of Ethiopian military reprisals against
the secessionists. In December 1970 the government declared a state of
siege in parts of Eritrea. The move failed, however, to end
the guerrilla warfare.

Crawn Prince Asfaw Wossen

Haile Selassie I

Imperial Palace

In the early 1970s Haile Selassie continued to play a major role in
international affairs, helping to mediate disputes between Senegal and
Guinea, Tanzania and Uganda, and northern and southern Sudan.
Nevertheless, he largely ignored urgent domestic problems: the great
inequality in the distribution of wealth, rural underdevelopment, and
corruption in government, rampant inflation, unemployment and severe
drought in the north from 1972 to 1975.

D. The Mengistu
Regime

In
February 1974 students, workers, and soldiers began a series of strikes
and demonstrations that culminated on September 12, 1974, with the
deposition of Haile Selassie by members of the armed forces. Chief among
the coup leaders was Major Mengistu Haile Mariam. A group called the
Provisional Military Administrative Council, known as the Derg,
was established to run the country, with Mengistu serving as chairman.
In late 1974 the Derg issued a program for the establishment of a
state-controlled socialist economy. In early 1975 all agricultural land
in Ethiopia was nationalized, with much of it then parceled out in small

Plots to individuals. In March 1975 the monarchy was abolished, and
Ethiopia became a republic.

The overthrow of the monarchy and the creation of the republic ushered
in a new era of political openness. Ethnic groups that were brought
into Ethiopia in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as the Oromo, Afars,
Somali, and Eritreans, stepped up their demands for self-determination.
Several of these groups even questioned the legitimacy of the Ethiopian
state and created guerrilla forces to fight for independence. With the
liberalization of politics, various ideologically based political
organizations formed, each with its own view as to the preferred
character of a new Ethiopia. Rather than allow democratic elections, the
military regime attempted to co-opt potential opponents, giving the most
significant political organizations representation in a deliberative
body, the Politbureau.

By 1975 it was clear that Mengistu intended to consolidate his hold on
power. This led to criticism from the civilian left, particularly after
several top leaders of the Derg were killed in early 1977, reportedly on
Mengistu's orders. Chief among opponents was the Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Party (EPRP), which by the beginning of 1977 had launched
a systematic campaign to undermine the military regime. The EPRP
conducted urban guerrilla warfare against the regime, referred to as the
“White Terror.” The government responded with its own “Red
Terror” campaign. The government provided peasants, workers, public
officials, and students considered loyal to the government with arms to
help government security forces root out so-called enemies of the
revolution. Between 1977 and 1978 an estimated 100,000 people suspected
of being enemies of the government were killed or disappeared in the
name of the Red Terror.

Increasing human rights violations led to tensions between Ethiopia and
the United States (Ethiopia's superpower ally of more than 20 years),
culminating in a complete break in relations in 1977. The regime was
weakened by the withdrawal of military aid, and opponents of the regime
gained control of vast amounts of rural territory and destabilized life
in the cities. By the summer of 1977 the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front (EPLF) controlled all but the major cities in the
province of Eritrea; the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF),
supported by the EPLF, had successfully captured significant territory
in the Tigray region; and Somali separatists, aided by the national army
of Somalia, had completely routed the Ethiopian army in the
Ogaden region. However, by early 1978 the Mengistu regime had managed to
secure military assistance from the USSR and Cuba, enabling it to regain
control of lost territories and drive its opponents underground.

Following this success, Mengistu attempted to win popular support for
his regime. He created the Worker's Party of Ethiopia (WPE) in1984 as Ethiopia's official Marxist-Leninist party and prepared a
new constitution to make Ethiopia a Marxist-Leninist people's republic.
In 1987 the new constitution was proclaimed and the People's Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia declared, modeled after the Soviet system of
government. Nominally a system of civilian rule, the new constitution
abolished the Derg and established a new, popularly elected national
assembly. Former Derg members remained in control, however, and the new
assembly elected Mengistu as president of Ethiopia.

E. Resistance and
Revolution

Despite its reorganization, the Mengistu government continued to be
viewed by many as illegitimate, and by 1987 opposition groups such as
the EPLF and the TPLF, which had been driven underground a decade
earlier, emerged as revitalized and better organized military
organizations. Over the next two years, the Ethiopian army suffered an
increasing number of defeats, and its forces became demoralized. The
EPLF regained control of most of Eritrea, and the TPLF captured the
entire Tigray region and began operations in surrounding regions.

Beginning in the late 1970s Ethiopia suffered from a series of droughts,
which progressively lowered agricultural production. A prolonged drought
between 1984 and 1986 plunged the country into famine. The embattled
northern regions of Ethiopia were hardest hit by the drought. Under an
ill-planned resettlement program, the government forcibly relocated
about 600,000 northerners to the south. The protracted civil war and the
government's mistrust of Westerners hampered worldwide efforts to
provide food and medical aid to the inhabitants of Ethiopia. During the
1980s an estimated 1 million Ethiopians died from starvation as a result
of famine.

In the late 1980s Ethiopia lost the support of the Soviet Union, which
had become dissatisfied with Ethiopia’s political and economic
development under Mengistu. Faced with economic and military shortages,
the government was forced to devise a political solution to its
problems. The Ethiopian national assembly called for unconditional
peace talks with the EPLF in June 1989, and later agreed to similar
talks with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
(EPRDF), an umbrella organization headed by the TPLF. Even as these
talks proceeded, the opposition forces acquired more and more territory.
In February 1990 the EPLF mounted a major drive aimed at capturing the
Eritrean port city of Massawa, the entry point for much of the food and
military supplies coming into Ethiopia. By the middle of the month it
had overrun the city, dealing a decisive blow to the Ethiopian army. A
year later the EPRDF had encircled Addis Ababa in the country's
heartland. The Ethiopian army lost its will to fight, and the country's
political leaders conceded defeat. In May 1991 the EPLF took
complete control of Eritrea, Mengistu flea the country, and the EPRDF
took control of Addis Ababa.

The EPRDF, led by Meles Zenawi, set up a national transitional
government in Addis Ababa, and the EPLF established a provisional
government in Eritrea. After a referendum in 1993, Eritrea declared its
independence, and Ethiopia recognized the new Eritrean government. In
June 1994 Ethiopian voters elected representatives to a Constituent
Assembly, charged with writing a new democratic constitution. The EPRDF
won 484 out of 547 seats in the assembly. A new constitution granting
special rights to different ethnic groups in Ethiopia was ratified in
December, and became effective in August 1995. In May 1995 a
new legislative body, the Council of People's Representatives, was
elected, with the majority of seats going to the EPRDF. In August the
Constituent Assembly officially transferred power to the new
legislature, and the country was renamed the Federal Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia. In the same month the legislature elected Meles as the
country's prime minister. He was reelected in October 2000.

Some ethnic groups, including segments of the Oromo and Amhara people,
remain displeased with the Ethiopian government and consider it as
illegitimate as the one that preceded it. The most vigorous opposition
has come from the Ogaden region of southeastern Ethiopia, where Islamic
fundamentalist Somali rebels, supported by Somali kinsmen, have
battled for the region's independence since before the overthrow of
Mengistu. In late 1996 the Ethiopian army attacked rebel bases in
Somalia, killing more than 200 Somali rebels.

In 1994 Ethiopian courts began criminal proceedings against members and
supporters of Mengistu's regime for offenses committed during and after
the years of the Red Terror. By 1997 more than 5,000 suspects had been
charged with war crimes such as torture, murder, and genocide.
Prosecution began in 1996 against 73 Derg members, 23 of whom, including
Mengistu, were tried in absentia. The Ethiopian government has attempted
to extradite Mengistu from Zimbabwe, where he lives in exile. Human
rights groups have criticized the fact that many of the suspects in
custody-who total more than 2,000-have been in prison without trial
since 1991.

In mid-1998 clashes broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea along the
countries' border, with each side accusing the other of seizing
territory. The border had not been precisely delineated when
Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1993. By early 1999 hundreds
of thousands of troops had been sent to the border, and the dispute had
become bitter war. Tens of thousands of soldiers died in the fighting
before a cease-fire was declared in June 2000. In December Eritrea and
Ethiopia, under the auspices of the UN, signed a peace agreement that
formally ended the war and established a commission to demarcate the
border between the countries.